Marleen Gorris

Born to Protestant working-class parents in the very Catholic southern part of The Netherlands, Gorris grew restless at a young age, studying both English in her native land and drama in England. An interest in student theater led her further into the arts, but it was not until she was 30 that she began writing scripts. Gorris took her first effort to the great Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman, hoping to interest her in directing it. Akerman, however, told Gorris that she must make the film herself. The result, "A Question of Silence" (1982), caused considerable international controversy with its story of three women strangers who, seemingly inexplicably, brutally murder a male shopkeeper i... Continue Bio >>